Mikael Blomkvist is a fictional character created by Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson. He is a main character of Larsson's award-winning Millennium series, along with Lisbeth Salander. Profile Name Larsson stated in interviews that he based many characters, including that of Lisbeth Salander, on characters from Astrid Lindgren novels. Blomkvist is frequently referred to by his colleagues in the news media as "Kalle Blomkvist", a reference to a boy detective who appears in several of Lindgren's novels, because his first notable investigation is uncovering the hideout of a gang of bank robbers. Lisbeth Salander sarcastically refers to him by this nickname throughout the series. Overview "Mikael Blomkvist is a graduate of the School of Journalism and had much of his professional life dedicated to revealing and report suspicious transactions, specifically in the field of banking and business," writes Larsson in the first volume of the trilogy. "It will give the typical image of guardian of the moral, incorruptible, facing the business world. And as such quite frequently invite you to comment on various issues in television." Character biography Blomkvist is an investigative journalist and co-owner of the monthly magazine Millennium based in Stockholm, Sweden. At the start of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, he loses a libel case involving damaging allegations about billionaire industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström, and is sentenced to three months in prison. Facing jail time and professional disgrace, Blomkvist steps down from his position on the magazine's board of directors. At the same time, he is offered a freelance assignment by Henrik Vanger, the former CEO of Vanger Enterprises and patriarch of the wealthy Vanger family, to help him solve the cold case of his great-niece, Harriet Vanger, who has been missing for 36 years and presumed dead. Blomkvist reluctantly accepts the case in exchange for valuable information Vanger claims to have that would help him in his case against Wennerström. During this time, Blomkvist meets and begins to work with computer hacker Lisbeth Salander, whom Vanger had hired prior to investigate Blomkvist while considering him for the job. The two form an important relationship, in which each of their skill-sets prove invaluable in solving the Vanger case; they also become lovers. At the end of the first novel, Salander saves Blomkvist from Vanger's great-nephew (and Harriet's brother) Martin, a serial killer who has been murdering women throughout Sweden for decades. Using her phone tapping contacts